ubuntu 12.04 dual boot using windows 7 mbr

Question

I'm doing this manually. Chose to not use easybcd. Everythings on new setup so I can reformat as many times as I need to get it right. Installed win7 first, set up partitions, installed ubuntu 12.04, inadvertently overwrote windows mbr with grub, repaired windows mbr, created extra partition for boot/grub, reinstalled ubuntu 12.04 this time using correct partitions, downloaded ext2fsd so windows can see grub partition, used copy function to "copy" boot.img file from grub folder, pasted direct to c drive, using windows bcdedit I created the entry to connect my boot.img (copy) which is in windows c drive, now the windows boot manager gives me the options of either win7 or ubuntu...great except that the ubuntu choice gets me nowhere. Message is "the selected entry could not be loaded..." and gives file \ubuntu.pbr and status 0xc000000f. I'm considering deleting the bcd entry, then creating a "shortcut" of the boot.img in windows c drive, then back to bcdedit to create the entry pointing to the shortcut.
Is this what I should do? please don't tell me to override windows mbr with the grub install function or point to easybcd (I may have to go that route anyway) thank you, thank you, thank you...from the bottom of my somewhat past newbie heart. xana40

Answer 1

I had nearly the same problem. In my case I solved it using my laptop's native bootloader (I use ASUS) Before any system starts to boot I press Esc and get something like hardware bootloader which is no related to Windows or GRUB. I have a choise between 'Ubuntu boot loader' , 'Windows loader' , 'Windows recovery' , 'Boot from CD' , etc. If I choose Ubuntu I got GRUB loading, If windows, then Windows boot manager. I don't know if it will work on your laptop. Some laptops instead of Esc use F1, F2, F4, F8, F10, F11 or F12.